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Living Out Of A Suitcase
Posts tagged Canada is better than Japan
Happy Birthday Steve!
Jul 1st, 2010
Drunk Steve...
Hungover Steve...
…Is there really any difference? Happy Birthday man, I love ya.
Monty’s
Jun 29th, 2010
Staying in Victoria, my relative Arata had a fine time at this seedy downtown strip bar!
Fisheye
May 24th, 2010
I think Steve and Erica might recognize where this photo was taken from. Kai might know too!
Christmas Dinner
Dec 26th, 2009
Instead of doing the KFC thing (a strange Japanese Christmas traditional meal), or buying a pre-cooked glazed leg from the supermarket, I went on the hunt for a whole bird yesterday. I searched a couple places and finally found some 3-4 pound birds for sale under Sendai Station.
Beerfest!
Jun 15th, 2009
Yesterday wrapped up a popular bi-annual event in Sendai, the Sendai Germanfest. This Oktoberfest-style event takes place in June and September for some reason. Kyoko and I checked it out on Saturday night. This outdoor event was at Nishiki-cho Park downtown and was already well underway by the time we arrived at 6pm.
The beer was pretty good, much better than the Japanese swill that’s served in restaurants and bars, and the food wasn’t overly terrible. Each beer though cost 1300 yen, or about 15 dollars! Nevertheless, I had 3 because it was just so much better than Japanese beer. One of the things I miss the most about Canada is microbrewed beer.
Got a chance to chat with the three German guys who provided the evening’s entertainment. They usually play in the German military orchestra, entertaining their countrymen wherever they are stationed around the world.
Check out the slideshow below, and the video clip of German people playing American music to Japanese people.
New Home?
Feb 25th, 2009
After searching all day in the freezing cold last Monday, I think, I hope that we’ve found our new apartment in Sendai.
Last month I was offered a transfer from Furukawa (population 40,000) to Sendai (population 1,000,000). I think I accepted even before my area manager finished the sentence. It’s not that I dislike Furukawa; it’s a quiet, relaxing farming town. It’s just that Kyoko can’t find a decent job here. We’d been hoping to make the move to Sendai, so I was all over this opportunity like white on rice.
Getting an apartment in Japan is pretty different than in Canada to say the least. First there’s the security deposit, which can range from zero to 3 months rent. Second, there may or may not be the infamous ‘key money’, which basically is a cash gift to the landlord/owner to the tune of a months’ rent. Finally there is the ‘introduction fee’ which is paid to the real estate company for making the arrangements for you. For this privilege you must pay another month of rent. Add to this other incidental costs, such as mandatory fire insurance and other building fees… we’re talking some serious yen.
After being shown 9 or 10 apartments that fell within our parameters (price, location, amenities, etc.) we found one that we were happy with. It’s an older building, built back in ‘83, but was just renovated. At the top of a 10 floor building as well, so the view of the city is pretty nice, and up away from the hustle and bustle of the street. Close to a big park and walking distance to the baseball stadium and Sendai Station, it’s a great area if you ask me.
Big added bonus: Washlet!
Bottom line to move in, including the 1st months’ rent?
$3644.
A Day At The Hospital
Feb 18th, 2009
Took another day off work, this time to go to the hospital. I’d been sick since last week and had been avoiding going there. To me, especially in Japan, visiting the hospital is a last resort measure only.
The health care system is very different than in Canada. Local medical clinics and family doctors are the exception rather than the rule. To put it into perspective, think of this situation. You are sick. Headaches, chest pains, nausea, whatever. You go to the emergency room. There are already about 200 people there, waiting. Most of them are elderly. You have to wait 3 hours or so before you get your 5 minutes with a doctor. But you actually have two problems, head pain and chest pain, for example. So you gotta wait another hour or two to see another doctor about your other ailment. Then you gotta wait another 30 minutes or so to pay. After doing this a few times last year one can see why I was so reluctant to go again.
Maybe it’s just where I live, in this backwards podunk town. Hopefully the system works better in Sendai.
More earthquakes
May 8th, 2008
The Earth was busy last night, my friends… We had 10 (TEN!!!) earthquakes late last night, the star of our show was the lovely lady you see above. But wait, let’s not forget all the other had working albeit lesser earthquakes that make Ms. Magnitude 6.8 look so good, here’s the rest of our cast! (All from the morning of May 8th, Japan Standard Time)
- 12:25AM – M4.7
- 1:02AM – M6.2
- 1:12AM – M5.4
- 1:16AM – M5.9
- 2:28AM – M4.6
- 2:31AM – M5.2
- 2:40AM – M4.6
- 3:19AM – M5.0
- 4:20AM – M4.7
While I’m not complaining per se… I wish it would stop. Or at least keep them under 5.0!
Bad Medicine
May 4th, 2008
My name is Andrew, and I have dandruff.
Watching my dandruff float gently down the stream.
In the past I had read that many foreigners in Japan have difficulty with Japanese deodorant, claiming that it isn’t effective. Luckily, I don’t have that particular problem, but when you add all these things together it seems that the medicine over here isn’t really up to gaijin standards. If it is a genetic trait, then perhaps the more dominant one resides in non-Asians. It reminds me of that old Secret anti-perspirant ad, “Strong enough for a man, but made for a woman.” Perhaps the hierarchy of humans goes something like this:
- Men
- Women
- Asians
The same goes for over-the-counter cold & flu remedies. I’ve tried all sorts of crap over here, but I’ll take Nyquil/Dayquil in a heartbeat over the thousands of medications I find at the local drugstores.
Expect a phone call soon Mom, I’m gonna need a care package!
The punishment should fit the crime
Apr 15th, 2008
Lately I’d been toying with the idea of listing things that are, in my opinion, either better in Japan or Canada. Reading the following news report kinda clinched it for me. What shocks me the most about this story isn’t the actual crime, rather the frequency that atrocities like this happen here in Japan. Some people I meet and see on the street… I know for a fact that if you left them in a forest for just 1 night they’d find some way to die or kill themselves. Japan has become too convenient; as a result basic survival skills are being bred out of them. Living in a sheltered, controlled, formulaic life will not give you the wherewithal to deal with life when the shit goes down.
One of the problems is that there’s no social feedback mechanism to educate the masses, unless you count conformity as a feedback mechanism. Salarymen jumping in front of trains, schoolkids hanging themselves… grow a pair and fight, this isn’t a game, this is LIFE. Then again, maybe it’s just modern Darwinism. Thanks for reading this sweeping generalization.
KAGOSHIMA — A 1-year-old boy died after he was left in a car by his mother, while she was playing pachinko in Kajiki, Kagoshima Prefecture, on Monday afternoon. Police said the boy was found by his mother, 35, foaming at the mouth and barely conscious in the car around 5 p.m. She called an ambulance and he was taken to hospital where he died later of heatstroke, police said.
According to police, the mother brought her son to the pachinko parlor which offers a free child-care service. But the children’s room was already full, so the woman left her son in the car while she was playing pachinko from 2 to 5 p.m.
A local meteorological observatory said the temperature only reached 23.3 Celsius on Monday. Police are continuing their investigation.